The Pine Valley Bulletin

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Established 1998

March 29, 1999

By: Anne Marie, Kathy's pinch hitter this week while I deal with moving
day angst!!

Wow! What a week! It sure was wonderful to be able to WANT to tune
in to tomorrow's show. I almost mistook it for sweeps. It has been way too
long since I felt this way about AMC. Actually, I know part of this feeling
stems from the fact that I no longer read scoops (sorry Kath!). That has
made me want to watch again with renewed interest, simply because I do NOT
know what will happen. This coupled with improved acting and storylines
has made me enjoy AMC again. Oh happy day!!!!! Now on to a huge week's worth
of shows!

During this week we saw Erica spiral into madness. Vanessa revealed
the extent of her injuries, Erica took off, ended up in the high school
library, all ready for her interview. She prattled on and on to the gathered
reporters about her return to modeling, oblivious to her heavily bandaged
face. It was so sad to see her like that and I feel Susan
Lucci did an excellent job portraying someone with an emotional psychosis.
Susan Lucci gets my ACTOR
OF THE WEEK AWARD. Her Norma Desmond like performance had me waiting
for the famous line "Mr. Demille. I'm ready for my close-up"!
Especially powerful was the slow motion screaming scene with all the characters
running in to the locker room after David removed her bandages and she saw
her face for the first time. We, the audience, did not get to see the horrible
disfigurement, but that is something to keep our imaginations going. This
came after a VERY untimely interruption by ABC news to tell us what they
didn't know. Of course, I would never minimize war, but I felt an interruption
of 10 minutes that told us absolutely nothing was really not vital.

Anyhow, Vanessa is so delightfully wicked, she is trying real hard
to cover the fact that she spilled the beans to Erica as well as notifying
the press to go to the high school. We are still not sure of her motivation
for all of this, as well as her constant baiting of her son about him being
the cause of Erica's accident, but I am sure it will be a convoluted and
very interesting storyline. Adam is furious with David and blames him for
the newspaper articles about Erica. The climax to their antagonism should
prove to be very exciting. Can't wait for David to tell Liza the news about
her baby. I, also, am enjoying Adam's obvious concern about his former wife
Erica. Sometimes Adam does show he has a huge heart! It is so hard to hate
that man!

The other really huge storyline this week was the rape and its aftermath.
As wonderful a job as Cameron Mathison is doing,
I won't be sorry to see an end to this mess. I never warmed to Paige
Rowland or her character and am happy to know they will be gone soon.
On the other hand, the character of Braden is finally getting interesting
and Zen Gesner is showing some acting muscle
at last. Of course, he is also slated to leave the show soon, kinda of a
shame I think. I really have started to like this man and enjoy his acting.
I don't know if any of you agree with me, but I am giving him my ALMOST
WILL MISS HIM WHEN HE IS GONE AWARD.

This week also saw a return for Mateo and Hayley. Mateo is a bit too
"fake and bake tan looking for me, but on the plus side his appearance
this week was minimal! Hayley did her best to convince Braden to tell the
truth. Just when we thought it was a lost cause, he showed up in the courtroom
to try and get Ryan off by finally telling the truth. Or is it? Braden says
he had consensual sex with Kit, a fact she vehemently denies with Jackass's
very vocal backing. His comeuppance ought to be awesome! The judge (very
well portrayed by guest star Donna Hanover Guiliani, the first lady of NYC)
remands Ryan back to jail until the DNA blood testing of Braden is completed.
Hopefully next week Ryan will be freed, Gillian will get a new hairdo and
quit having courtroom outbursts, they are getting a bit repetitious.

We saw Tad and Dixie in some uproarious "filler" scenes
with a bull this week, thereby enabling them to get the truth about Braden
being Ryan's brother. The scenes were cute, funny and much needed to balance
the seriousness of this week's shows. Tad also gets the LINE
OF THE WEEK AWARD for his droll "Could I slap him?" reference
to Braden after Adrian drugged him unconscious at the airport. Michael Knight's
comic timing is flawless as usual.

We also saw some more of Palmer and Opal and the continuing deterioration
of their relationship. This saddens me as I hate to see the character of
Palmer become so very dislikable. Stuart imparted some words of wisdom to
Palmer, but of course, they fell on deaf ears. Jill
Larson continues to amaze us all with her very touching and endearing
performance. I sure hope the Emmys do not ignore her NEXT year!

My SMACK UPSIDE OF THE HEAD goes to Raquel
for her very phony and ingratiating support of Kit to Edmund. We all know
she has an ulterior motive and she just adds fuel to the fire with Edmund.
It is time he came to his senses about Kit and dumped her sorry ass. We
saw Dimitri give it to Kit really good at the "Pit," he sure wants
her out of his brother's life. The scene where he threw the money at her
was very powerful and evocative of how he feels about her and what she has
done to their family.

Well, folks, just want to thank all of you for putting up with me
these two weeks, while Kathy was moving. I really appreciate all your letters
of support. I have had a ball doing this for my friend, and I hope she asks
me again sometime. Continue to enjoy our soap, I know I will!